It isn’t a coincidence why the greats become great, and the rest are stagnant with their development. Development and growth can only happen with overcoming adversity, learning from mistakes, and putting in more work than everyone one else.

These three things, consistently, can get you to achieve your greatness! One of the three I want to highlight in this article is putting in more work than anyone else. In soccer, you have to get your reps and build muscle memory. Building muscle memory will allow you to start doing skills in the field that don’t require a lot of thought. All the great players can do many skills because they have practiced them uncountable times, which is why they have unbelievable composure.

Even though Professional Soccer players have practiced their skills hundreds of thousands of times before becoming a pro, they continue to outwork so many by doing extra work before and after practice. This mindset of working before and after is something all players need to adopt early because of the benefits down the road. Ball control is a skill that should be your focal point whining doing extra training no matter the age. If you cannot control the ball, soccer will be a challenging sport for you. If you can control the ball, this allows you the freedom to express yourself on the field because you have the confidence in knowing you can execute. If you don’t know what drills you can do before practice, here are two basic exercises that will incrementally help your game:

1. Juggling - Take your ball and try to keep it in the air using any of your body parts. If you initially find juggling to be difficult, start with the ball in your hand. Drop the ball and kick it back in your hand. Next time try two juggles and catch the ball, three juggles, so on and so forth. Eventually, you’ll be able to get a lot more juggles, and won't have to start with the ball in your hands.

2. Inside and outside of the foot dribbling (Cones optional) - Take your ball and touch it with the outside of your foot, keeping the ball close to you. Once you’ve done that, immediately switch over and touch the ball with the inside of your foot, then switch back over quickly and touch it with your outside of your foot. Once you see improvement, see how fast you can do this skill. Another challenge is to set up ten cones in a straight line with a yard or so in between. Same skill, but through the cones for an added challenge.

If you can work on your game by putting in extra work, consistently, you will be happy with yourself because you committed to the task at hand. Here at Perfect Soccer, we will always give you guy’s information that we have learned throughout the years. Overnight success isn’t real, and sometimes you will hit obstacles that seem impossible to overcome. At this point, you have to keep going. So many will stop when things get tough; the greats use that as motivation to succeed! Practice hard, commit, and have fun!